Who Do You Want To Be Your e-MailMan?
Posted by Gerald on 07/25/07 in Apple, Home & Personal, Office, Organization, Productivity
Although Thunderbird has been around for a while, we haven’t covered it here at MacApper. With most commercial applications, and applications that Apple bundles with the Mac OS, there is a free alternative. This is no different for the Mail client of many names (Apple Mail, Mail, Mail.app). Although Mail is great, I think Thunderbird takes it to another level. Coming from Mozilla, the same developers who brought us Firefox, this is not surprising.
One feature that makes Thunderbird stand out is its support for RSS. It is nice to have all of your RSS feeds where your mail is, although I’ve not found this feature to be all that useful for me. I didn’t like the way it organized my feeds, and I just didn’t have the time to sort it all out. Checking my e-mail is something that usually should be done quickly. Having feeds there was a bad idea for me as getting sidetracked is usually inevitable. I now use Google Reader instead, because I prefer reading feeds while I am wasting time on other things on the internet.
Most of the e-mail features of Thunderbird aren’t too different from Mail’s; I just prefer the subtle things they’ve added to make it much easier. For example, when you’re creating an account, you can choose your account from a preset list, or you can and enter it all yourself. In my case, I used the Gmail preset that was available, so there was no need to enter all of the POP/IMAP information. Just this little option sped up the process substantially, and made it all that much more enjoyable. Though from what I have read able Mail.app in Leopard, it will do the same sort of thing. Also, I prefer seeing a progress bar when I send an email, instead of having to wait to hear that plane taking off in Mail.
Another great feature for users with overflowing inboxes: Thunderbird’s filtering system allows you to prioritize your emails based on certain parameters like the sender, subject, etc. This is definitely something that will come in handy. Depending on the filter you chose, Thunderbird can move the messages into a special folder, star the message, delete it, etc. There are many options available for this great feature. If you’re a very busy person, this will probably be one of the main reasons for you to switch from Mail. Thunderbird’s filtering system is similar to Mail’s rules.
The best feature of Thunderbird, however, is the plug-in system. Just like Firefox, if you are looking for something that you don’t have, it can be fixed via plugins. Although the selection of plugins is not nearly as wide as what Firefox offers, it’s still very respectable. Just the other day, I was looking for a way to archive my emails similar to how Gmail does. I managed to find Buttons!, which does just that and more. You can also customize the theme if you wish, just like Firefox.
I do have a few gripes though, such as the sounds. When you first start using it, the sound for new mail sounds like a regular Mac OS X alert, which is somewhat confusing. You can change that sound to the one used in Mail, but that seems to be the only sound you can modify at the moment; I couldn’t find a plugin for the other sounds. Just something minor, but do look out for it.
Overall, I recommend Thunderbird over Apple’s Mail. Although Mail is fairly decent, I believe Thunderbird makes things easier, and also packs more features. So, if you are looking for an alternative to Mail, this is where you should go. Our good friends at Mozilla make not only great browsers, but e-mail clients as well. Go download Thunderbird now; its totally free and open-sourced as well.
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